A metric for drinking water service reservoir performance as a sink or source of material

Abstract

Service reservoirs (SRs) are a critical component of drinking water distribution systems that impact water quality. There are no performance measures to quantify or understand this impact. By applying the concept of sink or source behaviour to describe the processes of material accumulation and mobilisation within SRs, this research develops a practical metric to facilitate assessment and quantification of SR performance. It is demonstrated how a few weeks of continuous data from instrumentation deployment at both inlet and outlet of SRs is sufficient to reveal valuable insight into SR and network performance. Through real-world applications, we provide evidence that the metric was able to track SR performance showing both beneficial and detrimental impacts on water quality, as well as quantifying seasonality and the benefits of SR cleaning. Such insight is invaluable for proactive, justifiable, and targeted decisions on the location and frequency of maintenance and management interventions.